Last summer was the Aurora theater shooting, the fires in Colorado, in December the Newtown shooting, and in just the past few weeks a student, Wilson King, killed in a car crash at the University of Denver, the Boston Marathon bombing, an explosion in Texas, a shooting in Washington, I think I've heard about a number of bomb threats. Just yesterday a friend told me three kids have committed suicide in Colorado Springs in just the past week. And that's not all, there are so many tragic events I couldn't list them all.
With so much tragedy and pain, it's hard to know how to respond.
Our first question is, "why?" Followed by, "Why, God? Why would God allow this?"
After the Newtown shooting one political figure's response was that we've taken God out of school, politics, Christmas, and so why should we expect God to be there in the midst of tragedy? We abandoned God, so God abandoned us.
It makes me so sad that a statement like this was made so publicly and re-stated so frequently because it is wrong, so very, very wrong. Yes, we have greater separation of church and state. Yes, it is more socially acceptable and inclusive to say "Happy Holidays" over "Merry Christmas." The implications of these changes is a discussion for another time, but I can say, with 100% certainty, that the result of these changes has not caused God to abandon us.
God does not abandon us. We abandon Him quite frequently, but He never abandons us.
So where is God in the midst of all this tragedy? If He doesn't abandon and He doesn't forsake, where is He? Why do these things happen?
And to be honest, I don't know why bad things happen. After the Newtown shooting I thought, read, listened, and learned as much as I could about suffering because I was so confused, so lost, so unable to comprehend why such absolute tragedy ever occurs.
Why are eight-year-old boys killed in explosions, why would someone dress up as the Joker and shoot up a theater, why would people kill innocents, why do bad things happen?
I don't have an answer, I don't think anyone does. But what I do know is that God does not cause bad things. God does not orchestrate tragic events, God is not the creator of evil or wrong.
When I don't understand, I look to the cross, because the cross says it all.
There's a verse in Romans that reads," but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Christ died for us. There is no greater love than the love He showed us, by dying for us. John 3:16, probably the most famous verse in the Bible, says, "for God so loved the world..."
This verse, the cross, they tell us all we need to know.
First, the cross tells us about love. Jesus loves us, that is clear. We know, historically, that the person of Jesus Christ actually existed. Whether you believe He was God or not, whether you believe He rose from the dead or not, you can't deny that He must have loved us very deeply if He was willing to die for humanity.
Would you die for your friends? Would you die for your enemies? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is incredible love.
But John 3:16 doesn't stop with love, it continues with "that He gave His only son."
The cross tells us not only of a God who loves deeply, but of a God who has suffered deeply. God gave His only son to die for us. He watched His only son die. I can't imagine the pain of that. As God suffered by watching His son die, so Jesus suffered as He died. He suffered the physical pain of torture and an incredibly brutal death, and He suffered the spiritual pain of being separated from God. The Bible says that Jesus "descended into Hell."
We have a God who has experienced suffering, He knows what we are going through in times of mourning, tragedy, and pain. He doesn't watch us from way up high in Heaven, pointing at us as we suffer and saying, "oh man, that sucks." Far, far from it.
Jesus isn't looking down at us, He is beside us. He doesn't watch us suffer, He suffers with us. As our hearts break, Jesus' heart breaks even more. His heart breaks as for the eight-year-old boy killed in the bombing. His heart breaks for the people who lost their lives and limbs in that explosion. His heart breaks for the friends and families. His heart breaks for the nineteen-year-old who committed this atrocity. His heart breaks for the lives that have been lost. His heart breaks for the hearts that are breaking.
In a sermon at the 9/11 Memorial Service, Tim Keller talks about this theme of a God who both understands suffering, and suffers with us:
One of the great themes of the Hebrew Scriptures is that God identifies with the suffering... it is on the Cross that we see the ultimate wonder. On the cross we sufferers finally see, to our shock that God now knows too what it is to lose a loved one in an unjust attack. And so you see what this means? John Stott puts it this way: 'I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the Cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?' Do you see what this means? Yes, we don’t know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, but we know what the reason isn’t, what it can’t be. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us! It can’t be that he doesn’t care. God so loved us and hates suffering that he was willing to come down and get involved in it."
I don't know why bad things happen, but I know the cross tells of a God who loves more deeply than I can fathom and who wraps His comforting arms around us, lets us cry into His shoulder, and cries along with us. He is a God who loves, a God who has suffered, and a God who suffers with us.
We live in an imperfect world, but we have a perfect God. Bad things happen, but God is still good, and in our darkest moments, He is there beside us.
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